Genesis: Mankind | Bethel Music Devotional

December 13, 2019

Bethel Music

GENESIS | MANKIND

Before the world existed you were God’s dream, a desire in His heart. The God of Genesis who established every star in its place and caused the earth to spin knows your name. This series highlights three themes from the first days of creation: light, mankind, and rest. Just as mankind was created in the secret place of a garden, alone with the Creator, we hope this devotional series provides a still space for you to experience His love and hear His thoughts about you.

“Then God said, ‘Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.’” Genesis 1:26

It was the sixth day of the beginning of the world, and everything was alive and vibrant for the first time, in harmony together and sustained by the breath of The Creator. Yet the most important part of this new world was about to be born—mankind.

Before the foundations of the earth were set into place, the Father in His great love decided to give mankind as a gift to the Son, to be His very own. So on the sixth day the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit set out to make mankind for communion with God.

God the Father reached down into the earth and His hands reappeared full of dirt. Holding it close to His face—He sang a song—the same song that the birds were chirping and the earth was spinning to. He sang His song of love and carefully fashioned mankind with his hands, forming his inward parts and knitting together every sinew.

“And God saw everything that he had made, and behold, it was very good.” Genesis 1:31

From the beginning of time all of creation has been defined by the voice of God saying, “It is good.”

When Adam and Eve opened their eyes, the first thing they saw was the Father’s smile. At that moment they learned their worth and who they were supposed to be. They were made in God’s image, and when the Father looked back into their eyes, He saw Himself staring back.

He commissioned them to be fruitful and multiply, having dominion over the animals and feasting on the fruits and plants of the earth. He only warned them not to eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

Satan came to Eve as a serpent and told her that if she ate from that tree she would be like God. Eve began to question if she really was like God, and suddenly felt something was missing. In an attempt to fill her void, she reached for the fruit and took matters into her own hands.

Eve ate the fruit because she believed the lie that she wasn’t enough and she needed to do something to be like God.

Satan’s goal wasn’t to get her to eat the fruit but to make her question her identity. Eve was already like God—she was made in His image.

Centuries later, Jesus is about to begin his ministry on earth, and the Bible tells us that He went to be baptized by John the Baptist. As Jesus came out of the water, the sky opened and the Spirit of God descended like a dove to rest on Jesus. A voice from heaven said, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased.”

Up to this point, Jesus hadn’t done any miracles, and the Father announced in front of everyone that He was already pleased with him. Jesus went into the wilderness with those words fresh in his mind, “My Father is pleased with me; I am His Beloved.”

Satan came to Jesus in the wilderness while he was fasting and said, “If you are the Son God, turn these stones into bread.” (Matthew 4:3) Satan’s tactic was exactly the same as when he tempted Eve. Satan wasn’t just trying to get Jesus to break his fast, he wanted Jesus to question if he really was the Son of God.

When we aren’t confident in our identity as sons and daughters, we will do anything to prove our worth.

“For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, “Abba! Father!” The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs,” Romans 8:15-17

We, just like Adam and Eve, are sons and daughters created in the image of our Father. His love and acceptance is not something we have to work for or earn—it has been freely given to us by the cross. The Father has been pleased with us since the day we were born before we even took a step.

Romans 8:19 says that all creation groans and waits for the sons and daughters of God to realize who they are.

Creation already knows who they are because they heard the Father’s voice in the garden, saying “It is good.” They’re just waiting for us to catch up.

When Satan tempted Jesus to turn the stones into bread, although he was physically hungry, Jesus had been feasting on his Father’s words, This is my beloved Son with whom I am well pleased.” Jesus already knew and believed that he was loved by God and didn’t have to prove to anyone, even himself, that he was the son of God. He said to Satan, “Man does not live by bread alone but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.”

Once we believe that we are completely loved by God, we become unstoppable.

After Jesus left the wilderness, he never outgrew his need for the Father’s voice defining who he was. It was the love of the Father that propelled Jesus throughout his entire ministry.

Prompt:

Even now, the Father’s thoughts about you are more than the grains of sand. Ask Him to hand you a few of those grains, and hear what He says about you.